Phantom Limb
by CreamCheeseAlchemist
Summary: I know everyone ships this but I couldn't go back to sleep, soooo


Reel FX and Twentieth Century Fox own Book of Life. I am slowly collecting various books and toys from Funko and McDonalds but I would have to stop if they sued me. /span Doesn't look like there's anything new coming out though. :(

I mulled over doing this as a sequel to my last fic but I decided to go with the Word of God reveals alongside my odd little pairing that most certainly will be invalidated by any sequel.

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The wedding party eventually wound down, with the visitors from the land of the remembered being the first to leave as midnight arrived. Then, slowly, people leaving with those they'd discovered at the party or come with.

And that left the two of them alone in the town square. It was the first time Joaquin Mondragon and General Posada had been alone together in some time, if ever. Inwardly, the General debated what he wanted more- to be alone in his big empty house with what Maria hadn't quickly packed for her wedding night in her new home, or to face...

"Please. I just want to dance a bit longer."

Slowly, the General turned to face Joaquin as he stuffed his eyepatch into a pocket. In the distance, it almost looked like a flicker of candlelight in the dead eye. "Just the two of us, as we are now." The General looked down at his hook and nervously unscrewed it. "I have to do this before bed anyway," he mused.

Joaquin drew in closer, "My father did this, didn't he?" "This was a mistake. I was a lousy friend to begin with and an even worse..." Joaquin just hugged the General.

Where his hand should have been, the General could almost feel his fingertips against Joaquin. He looked up at Joaquin, "What can you see out of that eye?" And immediately he regretted blurting that out.

"What's been left for us. Looks like your father drew you something, General." Joaquin then bent down and picked something up and placed it near the other man's missing hand. And there he felt the sensation of print paper- the same his father had used for his satirical cartoons- between fingers he no longer had.

"Imagine what the two of us could do- me being able to see the other world and you being able to feel it!" Joaquin grinned.

"I know things turned out well for Maria and Manolo but this should have been your wedding night," the General replied.

Joaquin shrugged, "It wouldn't have been. I was about to say no." The General stared up at him in disbelief, "But don't you love Maria?" "No question but I'm not sure it's in that way. And even if it was, I would want Maria to want me for myself- not to protect the town." At this, the General burst into tears.

"General?"

It was like they saw each-other for the first time. "I was making you into your father, wasn't I? Complete with that cursed medal!" "I was the one who agreed to trade my father's bread for it, though," Joaquin said firmly.

Silence.

Then, "The lord of the forgotten gave it to you the night before you joined my army?"

Joaquin nodded. "My father got it when he was older, right?" "Yes. When the madness took hold and he cut off my hand, he was calling the medal his wedding present. He certainly wasn't showing effects of its influence until after you were born."

"Alfredo tells me my mother blames herself for it- that she couldn't bear to live in that house, so she moved to a small flat in Mexico City."

"Gertrude grew up with more wealth than your father could provide on his own, and she could have a sharp tongue from time to time," the General added.

Joaquin looked down. "I'm no better. When Manolo brought back Maria's body..." He winced, "I'm worse. So maybe my mother pushed my father too hard but she never..."

The General stared up at him, eyes blazing,"Oh, Joaquin. We all felt the same way that morning. 'Should've been you'. I don't know if I would have said it but look at what's happened since. They both are fine and anything Manolo might blame you for... That same day, you were prepared to die in his stead and he knows it. There is nothing to be ashamed about, not now."

"Thank you. Do you think I would've gone mad had I kept the medal?" Joaquin whispered, the fear not quite gone. The General smiled at him kindly, no ulterior motive as he'd had up until yesterday. "You had the medal many more years than your father did. Perhaps it was your innocence at the time you got it that fended off the worse effects..." Joaquin smiled back, "The one thing I always held onto was Maria telling me to fight for what was right." "I had everything I wanted in a son right there and it's only hours that I've truly seen it."

"We've both been blind, General. But dawn is coming and-" The General just grabbed one of Joaquin's hands with his one and headed out of town. "Maria said I should have a look at the sunrise from outside the gates." Joaquin smiled, "There's no one else I'd rather see it with."

The two sat down under the tree. "What do you mean by that, Joaquin?" the General whispered. "I think you know. You've been looking at me no different than most of the girls in town do."

"But we shouldn't..." Inwardly, they both knew that wasn't the denial tradition demanded.

Joaquin kissed the General, the meeting of two mighty mustaches.

In doing so, they felt the sunrise but didn't quite see it, lost in each-other, hair mussed and clothes strewn all over by the end.

"They're going to send a search party if we don't get back soon," the General mused and almost not caring if they were found out here. "Yeah, but won't it be more fun walking back into town like this?" Joaquin beamed.

"No retreat, no surrender!"

Joaquin and the General walked into San Angel, hand in hand, through the rubble of the gate- like so many teenage couples who had crossed the same threshold over the years but completely lacking the expected guilty body language even as the whole town stared.

Manolo glanced over at his wife who was hiding her expression behind her fan. She just gave a slight nod, her eyes unreadable because the nuns had also taught her poker.

The town square was utterly silent except for Manolo's footsteps as he drew closer and closer.

And closer!

Manolo gave them a stern look that, in hindsight, bordered on parody. He then hugged the two of them, "Papas!"

The End


End file.
